1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to apparatus for manufacturing of baked foods and, more specifically, to an automatic device for folding fortune cookies.
2. State of the Art
A fortune cookie is a specialty food which may be best described as a baked wafer which has been folded into a complex shaped. The general ingredients of fortune cookies are water, flour, sugar, shortening and vanilla flavoring which are combined according to various receipes known to workers in the art. Usually, the mixed ingredients are poured into special circular molds which are then heated in order to bake thin flat wafers which are subsequently folded while still warm and pliant. The characteristic fortune cookie configuration is usually accomplished by first folding the circular wafer once on a diameter and then again about a line which is perpendicular to the plane of the folded article through the midpoint of the first fold line. The final shape is unique and is well suited for encompassing and containing a slip of paper having a "fortune" printed thereon from whence the cookie derives its name.
Although several machines have been proposed for automatically folding fortune cookies, the conventional method of production is still to fold the wafers tediously by hand. Examples of proposed folding machines can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,605,642 and 3,265,016. In order for an automatic machine to be satisfactory in practice, the machine must operate quickly enough to acieve an economical production rate but must also operate without breaking or tearing the wafers. A particular difficulty with the automatic folding of fortune cookies arises because the warm wafers are surprisingly resilient. Accordingly, the folding machine must hold the folded cookies gently in shape until they have cooled, or else they unfold.